1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a mouse device belonging to an information processing device such as a personal computer, a work station, or a word processor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the operation systems in information processing devices, such as personal computers, work stations, and word processors, have been rapidly improved so that anyone can easily operate these devices. Because of this trend, easy-to-operate mouse devices are becoming more and more common than keyboards which have been mainstream devices to input information.
Easy-to-operate mobile and portable information processing devices are often used in a vehicle or outdoors. The recent development of wireless mouse devices and wireless keyboards allows more freedom in the usage environment of information processing devices, such as personal computers, work stations, or word processors.
However, these information processing devices or mouse devices and keyboards carry batteries inside, and each battery has only a limited service life. Therefore, there has been a demand for low power consuming devices which have longer service lives.
A conventional mouse device includes a movement detector which detects movement in the directions of X and Y axes, and a button push detector which detects a button push. Based on the detection information from both detectors, a control unit generates movement information and button push information, and sends the information to an information processing unit. The movement information contains information on the travel distance of the mouse device and information on whether the mouse device is being moved or stopped. The button push information contains information on whether each button is pushed.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the procedures carried out by the control unit. The following is a description of the procedures. It should be noted here that the following description concerns a wireless mouse device, but it also applies to other types of mouse devices. In FIG. 1, the steps shown above the dot-and-dash line are the subroutine of an operation state, and the steps below the line are the subroutine of an idle state. In the idle state, the buttons are off, and the mouse device is stopped. In the operation state, one of the buttons is pushed, or the mouse device is being moved, or one of the buttons is pushed while the mouse device is being moved.
When the conventional mouse device is turned on, the control unit sets a movement detection interval time at an initial value T1'. In other words, the timer in the mouse device is set at the initial value T1' (S101). In the conventional mouse device, the movement detection interval time is T1' in the operation state and T3' in the idle state, and the relationship between T1' and T3' is T1'&lt;T3'.
The control unit confirms the detection information from the button push detector (S102), and then judges whether the predetermined movement detection interval time T1' has passed (S103). If T1' has not yet passed (S103 NO), the control unit unit generates the button push information based on the confirmed detection information, and sends only the button push information to the information processing device (S105). Here, the control unit has not yet confirmed the movement information from the movement detector (S106: NO), i.e., the movement detection interval time T1' has not yet passed. Therefore, the control unit repeatedly sends only the latest button push information to the information processing device until the time T1' has passed (S102) (S103: NO) (S105) (S106: NO).
When the movement detection interval time T1' has passed (S103: YES), the control unit confirms detection information from the movement detector (S104), generates the movement information based on the detection information, and sends the movement information as well as the latest button push information to the information processing device (S105).
The control unit then judges whether the mouse device is in the idle state or in the operation state (S106). If the mouse device is in the operation state (S106: NO), i.e., if one of the buttons is pushed, and/or the mouse device is being moved, the control unit repeats steps S102 to S106 until the mouse device is put in the idle state (S106: YES) where the buttons are off and the mouse device is stopped. While repeating the subroutine, the control unit generates the movement information and the button push information and sends the information to the information processing device every movement detection interval time T1'.
If the mouse device is in the idle state (S106: YES), the control unit sets the movement detection interval time at T3' (S107), and confirms the detection information from the button push detector (S108). If the buttons are off (S109: NO), the control unit judges whether the movement detection interval time T3' has passed (S110). If the movement detection interval time T3' has not yet passed (S110: NO), the control unit repeatedly confirms the detection information from the button push detector until the movement detection interval time T3' has passed (S108) (S109: NO) (S110: NO).
When the movement detection interval time T3' has passed (S110: YES), the control unit judges whether the mouse device is being moved based on the detection information from the movement detector (S111). If the mouse device is stopped (S112: NO), the control unit maintains the idle state (S106: YES), and repeats steps S108 to S112 until one of the buttons is pushed (S109: YES) and/or the mouse device is being moved (S112: YES).
When one of the buttons is pushed (S109: YES) and/or the mouse device is being moved (S112: YES), the control unit moves on to the operation subroutine and sets the movement detection interval time in the timer at T1'. The control unit then repeats steps S102 to S106 until the mouse device is put in the idle state (S106: YES).
As described so far, the conventional mouse device operates with low power consumption in the idle state (movement detection interval time T3').
With the conventional mouse device, however, a button push detected regardless of the movement detection interval time is considered as an operation state, and the movement detection interval time is set shorter than in the idle state. In such a case, the power consumption cannot be reduced, and the batteries carried in the information processing device or the mouse device have only short lives.